


Paralyzed

by mama_newt



Category: Falling Skies
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-25
Updated: 2017-11-25
Packaged: 2019-02-06 19:21:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12824334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mama_newt/pseuds/mama_newt
Summary: A fanfic about when Hal Mason woke up (set between seasons 2 and 3) and was paralyzed from the neck down.





	Paralyzed

**Author's Note:**

> I actually haven’t seen any fanfics of this (but maybe I’m just not looking hard enough).  
> Anyway, I wanted to write this, so here it is!  
> **I don’t own Falling Skies**

_Everything is going to be okay._

Those were the last words Hal Mason thogut before going to bed with Maggie beside him. Besides the fact that Earth had been invaded by aliens, though that was nothing new. They had the rebel Skitters now, things had to get better. 

That whole positive phase was gone pretty quick. 

“Hal, get up, let’s go get breakfast.” Maggie said, shaking Hal’s shoulder. 

“Mmrrrgggh.” Hal moaned into his pillow. He hadn’t slept too well the night before. 

“Come on.” Maggie took his arm and started dragging him out of bed. That’s when Hal knew something was wrong. He couldn’t resist her. He couldn’t do anything but lie there and be dragged onto the floor. 

He hit the ground, and Maggie, confused, knelt by him. 

“Hal? Are you okay?” She asked, cupping his face with her hands. 

“Go get my dad.” Hal said. She gave him a weird look, so he yelled. “Go get my dad!” 

Terrified and a little bit annoyed, Maggie slipped her jacket on and left their room, Hal still lying motionless on the floor. 

When she returned about five minutes later with Tom, Hal was still on the ground in the same position. 

“Hal?” Tom asked. “What’s wrong? Why are you on the floor?” 

“Dad?” Hal turned his head. “Dad, I can’t move. I can’t move!” 

Tom knelt beside his son. “Since when?” He turned to Maggie. “What happened?” 

“I have no idea!” She cried, taking a step towards the door. “He was fine last night!” 

Tom murmured a few comforting words to Hal, who’s lips had started to tremble, before adressing Maggie. 

“Go get Anne!” He yelled. Maggie nodded and ran from the room. 

* * *

 

Anne and Lourdes lifted Hal onto the stretcher they brought and took him out of the room. Maggie held Hal’s hand on the way to the infirmary, and Tom walked next to the solemn group. 

Hal’s brown eyes didn’t stop moving. It looked like he was trying to keep himself from crying. 

On the way, the procession ran into Ben. 

“Dad? Hal?! What happened?” He asked, walking with them as they hurried along, getting more than a couple stares. 

“He can’t move.” Tom whispered to his other son. “Go find Matt; keep him busy, and keep him away from the infirmary!” 

* * *

 

Hal lie still in the bed Anne and Lourdes had put him in. That was all he could do. 

At first, after Anne had taken an x-ray, she’d found nothing wrong with his body. 

Except for the fact that he couldn’t walk.

Anne knew that Hal wouldn’t lie about something like this, and everyone could see how upset he was. 

Anne said that he’d stay in that bed until they could find out what was wrong, and Hal figured that would be a long time. 

After the doctors left, Hal was left alone wih Tom and Maggie, but Tom had to leave soon after, being the President and all. 

“Maggie,” Hal whispered sometime late that night. 

Awoken from her light sleep, Maggie let go of his hand long enough to rub her eyes, and then immediately took it back again. “Yeah?” 

“I’m scared.” Hal said. 

Maggie’s heart broke at the sound of his ragged voice. “I know, but you’re going to be fine. Anne will take good care of you.” 

Hal sniffled. “I can’t move, Maggie. We’re in an apocalypse. You don’t survive if you can’t move.” 

Frustrated, Maggie squeezed his hand tighter. “Hey, I don’t want to hear that kind of talk, okay? You’re going to be fine.” 

Hal went silent, and Maggie realized he was crying. 

Holding back tears of her own, she wiped the tears off of his cheeks and smiled. 

“Will you-” Hal yawned. “Will you stay here until I fall asleep?” 

“Of course.” Maggie crawled into the bed beside him and let him rest his head on her chest. She ran her fingers through his hair until he fell alseep, and she fell asleep beside him. 

* * *

 

“Ben, can you help Hal?” Tom stood outside the curtain surrounding Hal’s bed. There was something he needed to look into, but it was lunchtime, and Hal couldn’t ear on his own. Maggie was out on a patrol, and everyone else was busy. 

Ben shrugged. “Sure.” 

Tom nodded his thanks and hurried away. 

Hal glared at Ben. “I’m not letting you feed me.” He said. 

“Aren’t you hungry?” Ben asked. He had expected this attitude from Hal. He hated needing help. 

“Yeah.” Hal paused. “I’ll wait for Dad or Maggie.”

”What’s wrong with me?” Ben smiled a little. 

“Nothing. But you’re my younger brother. I’m not letting my younger brother feed me like I’m two years old.” Ben was sure Hal would’ve folded his arms-that is, if he could. 

“Come on, Anne says you need to eat.” In the past couple weeks, Hal had been sick over and over and over again.

Unbeknownst to Hal, Anne thought that this was connected to his mystery paralysis. She’d told anyone who helped him do anything that he needed to keep his strength up. 

“I said I’ll eat later.” Hal muttered. 

Ben was about to get uo and leave when Hal’s stomach rumbled ferociously. 

Ben raised an eyebrow, and Hal sighed. 

“Fine.” 

* * *

 

The worst part of being in Charleston  _and_ being paralyzed was that people expected normal. Normal as in hygeine, too. 

So, Hal, who was still unable to move at all, had to have the help of his family and friends. With everything. 

Maggie helped him brush his teeth. Ben helped him eat. Matt would brush Hal’s hair if he got bored, though Hal tried to make sure that Matt never had a brush. 

“Hey, Hal.” Ben said, poking his head into the curtained off area. 

“What do you want Ben?” Hal asked, slightly annoyed. 

“There’s a meeting tonight.” Ben cleared his throat. “Dad says you have to go. Everyone does.”

Hal groaned. “Alright, go get Maggie and you two can help me change.” 

Ben shifted uncomfortably. “Um...” 

Tom walked in past Ben and sat beside Hal. “Ready to go get clean, champ?” 

The look Hal gave Ben was murderous. 

Twenty minutes later, Tom carried his eighteen-year-old son out of the bathroom in the infirmary and into his little alcove, where Maggie and Anne were waiting. 

“Where’s Ben?” Hal asked. Maggie helping him was okay, but Anne was a little too much. 

“He had to go.” Anne said. 

Maggie grinned. “What, would you rather have Matt here?” 

Hal laughed a little and rolled his eyes. Tom and Anne shared a glance. 

* * *

 

”Alright.” Tom and Anne held Hal up while Maggie slipped a shirt over his head. They sat him down on the bed and Tom put Hal’s boots on his sons feet. 

“Ready to go?” Tom asked. Hal nodded, looking tired. Anne and Tom lifted him into his wheelchair and then Anne said a quick goodbye and went to check on her other patients. 

Maggie held Hal’s limp hand as the group of three headed to the forum area. 

Once at the meeting, Weaver ruffled Hal’s hair. “How’re ya feeling?”

”Eh.” Hal said. Tom, who was up at the podium, scanned the crowd for his sons.

Ben and Matt stood behind Hal, Maggie and Weaver on either side of them. He smiled to himself.

_At least he’s not alone._

Hal sat through the announcements without really hearing any of it.

Near the end, there were some whoops from above where everyone was standing. The people of Charleston looked up to see Pope and his gang.

With a loud and dramatic laugh, Pope threw something down into the crowd.

Upon instinct, Hal flinched and raised his hands to cover his face. 

Magge stared at him. “Hal,” she said. 

He looked up at her. “Yeah?” 

“You moved.” She smiled, and he did too. 

“I can move!” Then he frowned. “I can move?” 

Ben watched his older brother with Maggie, then looked up at his father, who was in a quiet but heated argument with Pope. 

“Hey,” Ben whispered to Maggie. “Let’s take him back to the infirmary, get him checked out?” 

Maggie nodded, still smiling, and she wheeled Hal away. 

“Is he gonna walk again?” Matt asked Weaver once his older brothers and Maggie had gone. 

Weaver shrugged. “I don’t know, kid. I don’t know.” 

* * *

 

Maggie watched Hal try to lift a spoon with mixed emotions. He was trying so hard, yet he could barely control his movements long enough to get a spoonful of food. His muscles were too tense, too shaky. 

After he’d spilled the hot soup on himself three times, Anne gently took the untensil away and told him to rest. 

“Help him eat, please.” Anne said to Maggie before leaving. “He’s gotten so thin.” 

Maggie nodded and sat down beside her boyfriend, who was trying to wipe at the soup he’d spilled on his shirt. 

“It’s so annoying.” He muttered. “I can’t do anything.” 

“Hey, I know you’re upset, but, hey. You couldn’t move three months ago. Look at yourself now.” Maggie tried to be comforting as she slowly helped him eat. 

“I still can barely move.” He said. Then he looked up at her. “Maggie, I’m sorry.”

”For what?” She asked gently, rubbing his cheek. 

“For having to get your help with everything. My dads help. Everyone.” 

“Hal, we want to help you. If we didn’t, you’d be out there drinking with Pope.” She tilted his chin towards her. “I love you. Okay? We all do.” 

Hal smiled tiredly. “I love you too.” 

* * *

_A couple months later_

With Tom and Maggie on either side of him, braces strapped onto his legs, Hal Mason tried to take his first steps in months. Anne, Ben, and Matt stood off to the side, watching. 

“Mr. President, sir.” A man Hal didn’t recognize stood outside the area where Hal and the others were. “A moment, please?” 

Tom nodded, patted Hal on the back, gave Anne a quick kiss, and left. Maggie held Hal steady as his father walked away. 

“Hal, wait until he comes back.” Maggie said. Ben wasn’t quite confident enough to help Hal walk, Matt was much too small, and Anne had become too weak lately, so Maggie and Tom were the only ones that could help Hal. They were the only ones that Hal let help him. 

“I can do it, Maggie, you’ve got me, right?” Hal turned to her and grinned, then tried to take a step. 

“Hal, wait for your father.” Anne called, but he didn’t listen. 

Maggie kept a firm grip on his arm and tried to stop him, but she wasn’t quite strong enough on her own to handle him.

He started to fall and he let out a small yelp. Maggie tried to slow his descent, and Ben rushed over, but he hit the ground anyway. 

Anne hurried over too, but Matt stayed put, looking terrified. 

“I’m fine, I’m fine.” Hal insisted as his friends lifted him into his wheelchair. “Really, I’m okay.”

Anne gently pushed on different places on his head, asking if it hurt. 

“A little, but I’ll be fine.” Hal answered, pushing all the hands away. 

“Are you sure?” Anne asked. Maggie ran her hand over his hair, and Hal smiled. 

“It was bound to happen at one point.” 

At that moment, Tom returned. 

“And there’s Mr. President himself.” Hal said. “Now let’s try it again.” 


End file.
